Subtracting a correction value from an offset-afflicted signal for compensating the offset is known from the related art. The output signal of the offset compensation circuit is reduced by a fixed, predefinable value for obtaining the correction value, or a certain predefinable percentage of the output value is used as the correction value. Due to the negative feedback of the output value of the offset compensation circuit, this is a control loop. However, the disadvantage of this related art is that the offset regulation does not operate very accurately as a function of the noise component of the output signal. Since the correction value is always a fixed proportion of the output value, the correction of a large offset requires a longer time period than the correction of a smaller offset.